Congratulations Suns Fans! You Just Survived The Worst Of The Lockout

Posted on Jul 08, 2011

In most summers, nothing happens for the Phoenix Suns after the first week or so of free agency until training camp starts. We might get 3-4 more pieces of Suns news (low-end free agents, coaching staff) over a 2.5 month span, but that's in a GOOD summer.

So, you've survived the worst of the lockout, Suns fans! In fact, the rest of the offseason should be a piece of cake.

Usually, we spend the next two months poring over sports stories, googling 'suns' news, fretting about other teams' better signings, arguing about the "fit" of new player X, lamenting the loss of a bench-warmer or two, and rolling eyes at fellow BSotSers' horribly-conceived trades (while our own ideas are genius!).

Basically, two months of high frustration.

Yet this summer is BETTER than that. Thanks to the lack of a CBA, we can't even propose trades with any comfort level. Thanks to the iffy season, we're not even debating keeping/trading Steve Nash ad naseum.

This summer you can relax and enjoy the time off. Get two months of good sleep. Am I the only one who would get up in the middle of the night to check Suns news for any late-breaking rumors or signings. Heck no I'm not. Cuz the one time I missed a midnight signing, there were 600 comments by 7am!

And guess what? There's still the same amount of Suns' related "news" as any other summer after the first week of free agency.

Looks like the Suns' top choice for their defensive coordinator job was Jim Boylan. Milwaukee is reporting he turned down the Suns offer to take a one-year extension with the Bucks. Oh well. It's not like I knew anything about Boylan.

More Sarver piling-on. He deserves it. While I'm hopeful the new CBA will help the Suns compete more with the big-market teams (Dallas is 4th and Cuban makes gobs of profit on the Mavs every year), Sarver doesn't help himself with the local fans at all. Gotta give him credit for a few things, however small: (a) the Suns refund policy, (b) authorizing expansion of the coaching staff, (c) fighting for what he believes in, as a key owner in the labor deal, (d) keeping complete front office intact during lockout.

ValleyoftheSuns.com is starting a series of instructional videos on what Suns players need to work on this summer. Gortat is first up. I'm really glad he's playing for Poland this summer to practice any new moves he picked up from The Dream last month.

Take a look at the bottom of this list of potential ROYs. Markieff Morris makes an appearance for his highly efficient scoring. Factor in the unmentioned high rebound rate and defensive acumen, and you've probably got yourself a 15-year NBA player. No idea yet how good Morris will be, but he'll fill the box score at least.